Happy New Year!

NY1 yearend wrapup

As the Simpsons’ Dr. Nick says, hello everybody! I’m back from my holiday breather. I was out of town for the entire shitstorm-I mean snowstorm-so missed all the coverage. But I can’t say I’m sorry I missed the actual storm.

Anyway, let me start my first post of the new year by begging you to go over and read Patspapers.com, in the unlikely event that the three of you who read this don’t already. They are struggling and they need more traffic! Read more about Pat’s plea here:

http://www.patspapers.com/blog/item/call_to_action_tuesday_pats_papers_sos/

Now that that’s out of the way, I thought it might be fun to do a year-end wrapup—call it the Year in New York One. This will be half-assed, since I got a crazy new job early last year that does not leave me much time for TV watching anymore, but here’s what I’ve managed to catch.

The biggest change is that they seem to have gotten a raft of new reporters.

Here are my reviews of these folk:

Jamie Shupak—I honestly don’t know what to think about her. She looks like a precocious high school student who got a really, really good internship (though she’s had a couple of other TV traffic reporting jobs, so she’s not a newbie). And I am getting a little tired of her endless cheerleading for the weekend (“we made it to Fridayyyyyy!”). That said, I like her better than Debbie Duhane (“Alternate side parking rules, THEY are in effect…”) and the reports are generally better, in large part because they are making much better use of graphics. And I like her focus on mass transit; I’ve actually changed travel plans to work on occasion because of her reports. But she’s also a liiiiittle to flirty with Pat for my taste (though who can blame the gal?).

Inside City Hall—I haven’t seen the show in forever, but obviously, there were a lot of huge changes in the wake of the Dominic Carter saga. I have to hand it to Michael Scotto, who did a great job filling in during what was a crazy time to be replacing a long-time anchor.

Rocco Vertuccio—Is he new? I don’t know, but I don’t remember seeing him before this year. Anyway, I don’t really have an opinion on him, other than to suggest that his name could not be more Italian. Maybe he should be the Carroll Gardens reporter.

Lindsay Christ—She technically joined in 2009, but I just noticed her this year. Whoops. Anyway, it seems like she has the makings of a pretty good reporter, and she’s got great credentials (she used to teach before she became a reporter). But…is it just me or does her delivery seem a little, well, weird? At times she sounds like a lobotomy patient reading off a cue card. Maybe with a little practice she’ll relax and get a bit more natural. She could take a page out of Roger Clark’s playbook.

That chick from Chow.com—I like these stories but I find the gal who delivers them to be really annoying. I just wish she’d be a little more formal and not say stuff like “awesome”, etc. I mean, she’s not a full-time broadcast correspondent but the tone of her segments is so out of sync with the rest of the NY Living segments that it’s jarring. But maybe I’m just jealous because I want her job!

Speaking of education, the Cathie Black story seems to have been one of the bigger stories of the year, but my FAVORITE moment in all of NY1’s blizzard of coverage came from Roger’s report on her first day on the job, when she toured all the schools. At her first stop, in Brooklyn, they filmed a PAINFUL segment of her attempting to high-five a student, who totally left her hanging.

Aaaaaand that’s all the brilliant analysis and insight I can offer for now. More inanities to come. Happy Fridayyyyyyyyy!